The several muted gunfire sounds echoed through the air as Samantha gunned down another wave of approaching zombies with her upgraded plasma beam. The Delta Aeon upgrade was powerful enough that simply firing near the head of an approaching zombie could cause the flesh to burn or warp slightly. A direct hit vaporized large sections of whatever it struck.

"Right, Samantha you continue running on point," said Scott. "The rest of us will follow and take care of anything that flanks us." Samantha acknowledged his direction by simply firing on another enemy.

Using her tank-like nature, they slaughtered their way forward for several minutes. Her weapons made a distinctive sound, but there was enough ambient noise in the dead city to drown her out at great distances.

Between the singing zombie bros who drew off large sections of the horde, and that background noise, quite a bit of time was saved overall. They were not forced to fight a massive tidal surge of zombies, and could safely ignore most of what came their way as they opened the way forward.

It was not long before they reached their first major intersection. The street was lined with abandoned vehicles in various states of disrepair. A large pile-up at the center showcased the madness that overtook the people who lived in this city during the outbreak. Several buildings were burned to the ground, most of those that remained upright showed series signs of damage.

"Where to?" called back Samantha.

Kitty leapt forward and performed an agile flip-kick that sent a fat zombie flying into a small pack of its fellows. All around them, the hungry dead staggered toward them with their arms outstretched.

"Checking, there's several routes forward," said Scott. Chaine took out his Lore-keeper and checked the area as well.

"Most direct route is that street off to the side. We can cut through the back alley and head onward. Dangerous but quick," said Scott.

"This place here?" asked Chaine, before showing Scott his own map. "The one with the most red on it?"

"Red is enemies?" asked Scott.

"Yeah, the flashing ones mean that there's something there strong enough to easily kill me if I don't pay attention," said Chaine before showing him that there were eight such flashing red lights.

Samantha fired off several quick shots to finish off the closest pack of zombies. "Which way?"

"Shit, there's flashing guys everyone on those routes... There's, damn... Must be thousands of red guys close to us," said Scott.

Red flashy guys would be bad, but even a large number of weak shamblers could be overwhelming. On a less time-sensitive mission, taking them down would be great. At the moment, though, avoiding conflict would be best.

Saelil floated down from her over watch post up in the air and offered her thoughts, "The rooftops are nearly clear."

Scott turned to Chaine, "How well do you jump and climb?"

"I'm decent, why? Thinking of going above it all?" he asked in response.

Kitty tore the head off of an approaching zombie with a claw strike, and performed a quick spinning low-kick that knocked two more to the ground. While all of that went on in the background Scott pointed to a nearby building. "Can you jump and climb on something like that?"

"Easily," replied Chaine.

"Samantha! That building over there," called Scott.

"Right!" she called back. The team worked their way to the far-side of the intersection by cutting a path through the staggering masses. Using the abandoned cars to good effect they leapt over large packs of the undead and eventually stood at the bottom of a three story building.

"Everybody up!" called Scott before spinning around. He fired off several fireballs to thin the crowd. Making friends would be nice, but at the moment he needed to clear the area without the risk of making more berserkers.

Zombies were sent flying in the fiery explosions that ensued. Meanwhile Kitty leapt up quite some distance then slammed her clawed fingernails and toes against the side of the building. Her claws easily tore into the masonry, and her raw physicality held her in place with ease.

She did slide down slightly when she began to move once more, but found just enough purchase to hurl herself upward. She clawed at the roof of the building and climbed up with little effort.

Saelil simply flew up the side, but Samantha and Chaine proved more inventive. The formed squatted down then briefly radiated a bright light before rocketing upward fast enough to leave after images in her wake. She easily cleared the three story height like it was nothing. Chaine, on the other hand, pulled out a device and aimed it upward. A spiked arrow shot outward, a chain trailing behind it.

Quickly, the hero of Ha' Ruul flew upwards using his hook shot. Once he was on the roof, Scott simply turned and ran toward the building. He jumped straight upward and acting on instinct he tried to kick off from the side of the building once near the top. His kick was enough to easily force him well above the roof of the building.

Noting how easily his wall-kick jump movement worked when he could control part of his micro-gravity, he could not help but smile. Scott slowed his descent slightly via an act of will and took a brief moment to look at his surroundings as he headed toward the roof top. His power over his immediate gravity easily allowed him to redirect himself toward his goal or change the speed of his descent, even if it was not quite enough to actually fly.

"Great job. We're getting close," said Scott. He pointed to a much taller building on the far side of the next street. "We need to cross that building, and then there should be a series of smaller ones beyond it that we can use to escape a lot of the current horde."

"Can we go around to a smaller one?" asked Kitty. "That's gotta be at least twenty stories straight up."

"Yes, but it will add to the time it takes us to cross town because we'd need to fight through the horde. Anyone who doesn't think they can make it to the top of that in less than ten minutes, please say so now," said Scott. He looked around at the others then said, "Another route might be faster if that's the case."

Saelil shrugged. Heights were not a problem for her, at least nothing at the level of these city roof tops.

"That's well beyond limit of my hook shot," said Chaine.

"I'm a good climber, but I don't know about jumping and latching on that many times," said Kitty.

"Even my super jump isn't getting me up there from out here," replied Samantha without hesitation.

"You sure? If you're not, we can cut around through here," said Scott while pointing at his map. "It'll take a good bit longer but we can always just ignore the jumps from these three roofs here," he continued while pointing at the next spot on the map, "and start from there."

Chaine looked at his Lore-keeper. "That way puts us growing through a thick concentration of the dead."

"I figured. That's why I suggested the first plan," said Scott. He took a closer look at his map and noticed something potentially good. "We could also just go to the roof of this building over here, and I could get the rest of you up tall building there pretty quick."

"You can?" asked Kitty.

"Maybe," said Scott. He looked toward Samantha, "How much do you weigh?"

"I have a plasma disruptor you know," said Samantha.

Scott shook his head, "Whatever, I doubt it's too much. I'll get you all up there."

He tossed a few dozen fire balls down on the mob of undead in front of their current building then urged everyone forward. Once they reached the roof of the building directly adjacent to the one they were looking to climb Scott turned to Samantha. "I'll try to take you first so you can do cover fire if necessary."

"Right... What exactly do you intend to d— Hey!" she cried out in digitized surprise when Scott wrapped his arms around her armored waist, picked her up and rushed toward the edge of the roof. At the last second he leapt off with great strength and rocketed toward the side of their target building.

The moment just before they would have collided with it, Scott's feet shot out and he kicked downward against the side of the building. They shot up into the air at great speed. Whenever their upward momentum slowed, he reoriented them toward the building and he kicked downward once more.

Using the gravitas flower and his own superhuman strength Scott was able to perform maneuvers that only a platform hopping ninja, or a humanoid robot from nineties era platform hopping adventures, might consider.

He released Samantha once they were on the roof of the building. By this point he was practically giddy with his sense of platform hopping accomplishment. The first time that he'd used a gravitas flower, his control over his ability to redirect himself was nowhere near this level. Since that time, however, his stats increased several times over. The difference was astonishing.

"Wow. That actually worked!" he exclaimed happily.

"What do you mean, actually worked?" asked Samantha surprised. Her tone of voice became darker even as her arm cannon began to rise up, "Are you saying that you didn't kn—"

"Eh, time's wasting! Gotta get moving," replied Scott before he flippantly flipped off the side of the building and dived toward the street below. He was not flight capable, but with his recent upgrades in strength and overall hit point durability he held no fear that he would die from such a fall.

"Hey!" shouted Samantha from the roof.

Using his current gravitational ability, he moved toward the side of the building and slapped his feet against the side. He slid briefly then kicked downward to launch himself back up a short distance. The speed of his fall decreased.

Roughly halfway down he instinctively did the same thing and then a quarter of the way down he kicked off one final time. Scott struck the ground like a meteor smashing into the earth, he could feel the pressure through the soles of his feet, but he'd received no damage.

Their current method would draw a lot of attention, but it would also save time. Quick as a shot, he returned to the roof top.

"Alright, Saelil can get up there by herself, so I'll take Kitty then Chaine," said Scott.

Saelil frowned slightly when her beloved slipped his arms around Kitty's waist. Suddenly, the power of limited flight did not seem as useful. Nevertheless, she followed them upward toward the roof as Scott wall-kicked his way to the top. He slipped a little once, but thankfully his gravity powers allowed him to correct his fall to try again before he lost too much height.

"Man, it would be great if I could use this to just hover in the air or something," he said just before he crashed into the ground once more. The power cushioned his fall somewhat and he could slow down to some extent if he needed to do so, but sadly a full-out stop or reverse motion did not work. His greatest mobility boost was actually in the form of downward momentum. He could crash down with much greater ease than he could move around in the air, or slow his descent.

Once he was back on the roof with Chaine, something happened that no one expected. An awkward pause ensued.

Scott looked at Chaine, and the Ha' Ruulian warrior looked at him. While carrying the girls up, Scott cradled them tightly in his arms. Even Samantha in her power armor found herself born aloft in his moderately romantic embrace.

"How..." began Chaine.

"Yeah, uhm..." said Scott. The mechanics of the thing were important.

"Whatever, we need to get up there so..." began Chaine.

"Do you want me to take you from the front or the back?" asked Scott quietly, a hint of anxiety in his tone. The conversation was a bit awkward since nothing was attempting to eat them at that exact moment. One might suspect that had immanent death been the case, this conversational issue would not be as much of an issue.

"What's taking them so long?" asked Kitty from atop the taller building.

"Yeah, no kidding," said Samantha before she glanced down over the side to see what was going on.

Saelil tilted her head to the side. "They're deciding whether Chaine wants Scott to take him from the front or from behind."

"What?" asked Kitty, her nostrils flaring in response to the surprisingly intriguing statement. Her eyes began to sparkle slightly as various thoughts bubbled up from deep down inside her personal sea of consciousness.

Samantha's digitized laughter echoed through the air for a brief moment, before Chaine walked up and hopped onto Scott's back. He would ride piggyback on this mission.

"So, from behind it is then..." said Saelil.

"Meow..." said Kitty, her pupils narrowing to feline slits. What an intriguing thought. Men weren't really her thing in general, but Chaine was almost absurdly pretty for a man, and there was something about Scott that she simply enjoyed being around.

Chaine clung to Scott for dear life while they kicked their way up the side of the building. Once on the roof, they received a few absurd grins and a digitized chuckle from the ladies.

"Great, on a rescue mission and everyone wants to giggle like children," groused Scott as he walked over to the far edge of the roof.

His gruffness only made the girls laugh a little louder. Chaine, however carefully avoided anyone's gaze for a moment.

"How about these jumps? Anyone going to have problems?" asked Scott, while pointing at a building several streets away. He outlined which building they would jump to next, one that was roughly two-thirds the height of their current twenty-story tall platform. It was linked to their current position by wires, and stood on the other side of a large raised roadway.

That roadway was the main reason why they did not simply rush to that building in the first place instead of climbing to the top of the one they now stood on. The place was jam packed with the undead, some of which seemed quite active.

"What were these wires for?" asked Saelil.

Scott shrugged, "Hell if I know. I saw them on my map and figured they could be useful as a zip line. Worst case scenario, they were too small and I simply hopped everyone across the road in large leaps, so we could move forward normally like before."

"What's a zip line?" asked Saelil.

"It's a line connecting two places. You can slide down quickly from the high-point to the low one," said Scott. "This one goes all the way to the other side of the overpass looking thing over there. It'll save a lot of time by letting us avoid most of this horde."

"This wire's a bit thin," said Samantha. "I don't know if it'll hold me."

"Maybe you should eat more fruit," said Kitty.

Samantha snorted at her, "Yeah, that'd help right now."

"Would you be able to jump down from here normally?" asked Scott.

"I should be fine with my suit, but jumping from this height is pushing it a little. Might be better to just roll off in a ball and hope for the best," she said.

"Right," said Scott. He did not like the sound of that one bit. Honestly, even using wall kicks on the way down taxed his durability when he hit the ground. He'd have to slowly kick his way down if he carried someone.

Saelil was a non-issue. She could easily float over to the other building. It was sad that she could not carry anyone while doing so, however. The other three were the issue. Hell, he wouldn't even try this path if he did not eat a gravitas flower before-hand.

"I'd probably be better off running over there and using my hook shot," said Chaine. "But if this gets us all over there faster then let's do it."

"Yeah, I'm with him. This fall would probably kill me. Even if I did it just right," said Kitty.

Scott nodded to her then tested the wire. It swayed a bit, but seemed sturdy. "It should probably hold us. I mean it looks like steel cable under this plastic coating... Ah, got it!"

"Got it?" asked Samantha.

"Yeah, I figured out a way to make this work a bit better," he said before looking to Saelil. "I'll hold it tight at this end. Think you can fly over to the other side and hold onto it there? I mean, wrapped yourself around something and hold this tight if possible."

"Ah, in case it breaks?" she asked.

"Yes. We can try to send Kitty across after you get there. There shouldn't be a problem once she's across since we'd have more than enough strength on both ends to get everyone across," he said.

"Sounds good," said Chaine. "What about the rest of you, though? Are you literally going to try to climb that down? That would take a long time."

"Nope. We got something better..." said Scott. "These metal rails."

"We cut a few free and we can use them to slide down. At least, to go part way," said Scott.

"How do we cut them though?" asked Kitty.

"I got it," said Chaine before rushing to the nearest section of rooftop railing. His sword easily cleaved through the pole-like rails. Scott went over to help him, and held the newly freed sections of railing while Chaine chopped through the rest.

"That's a wonderful sword," said Saelil. "It cuts through steel like it's nothing."

"It cuts through almost anything," said Chaine.

Scott muttered, "Except pre-rendered background art," but then ignored their banter and focused on the task at hand.

He took the thick steel poles one at a time and gripped them tight near both ends. Utilizing his floral power boosted strength, he bent the poles all the way around in a circle. He then went over to the impromptu zip line and put one of the bent poles atop it before tightening the circle.

"Alright, that's one..." said Scott, "Who's going first?"

"I'll do it. If it breaks, I can just morph into a ball and probably be fine," said Samantha.

Scott nodded to her. Saelil flew across the area to the building on the other side of the large zombie horde, and set up shop. Once she had a solid grip, Samantha gripped the bit of metal that she would entrust her life to, and released a grunt.

"You good to go?" Scott asked her.

"I've dealt with worse. I doubt the fall would kill me either way," she replied.

With that, she was ready. Samantha gripped the bent pole tightly then rushed forward and hopped off the side of the building. Her digitized voice cried out first in surprise, but then in joy. "Yeah!" she cried as she slid down the line at ever increasing speed.

"Looks like it works," said Scott.

Kitty went across next, her shout of "Woohoo!" echoed through the air.

"Guess silence isn't really our thing right now," said Scott with a grunt.

Chaine went next, but he restrained himself from shouting with glee. This was a rescue mission, after all.

"Let's hope this thing will hold me," said Scott. There was no reason to believe the steel cable would break, but who knew if the part holding it would continue to hold.

Scott sucked in a bit of air then blew it back out in preparation. A moment later he rushed forward then leapt from the building. Who placed this random steel cable here would never be known. Honestly, he did not care. All he did know was that it proved useful, as he quickly zipped overhead past hundreds, perhaps thousands of zombies down below.

"Damn, that went smoother than I thought it would," said Scott.

"What do you mean?" asked Kitty. "Did you think something would go wrong?"

"No, of course not," said Scott in a flat tone of voice. "We were perfectly safe at all times."

A bit of grumbling echoed across the rooftop while Scott plotted out the next move. Thankfully, the next move was a series of easy jumps from one rooftop to the next.

Not long after clearing the sixth rooftop jump, Scott checked the map then grinned. "Already halfway there."

"What would we have done if those rails weren't on the roof?" asked Kitty.

"I would have gotten something else. I don't have any trouble going up and down buildings at the moment," said Scott.

"Ah, I see," said Kitty, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Running the roof tops and jumping from one height to the next allowed them to avoid a lot of conflict, and to make great time. Scott's grin faded a little, however. "There's a small ravine looking section that splits this side of town from the other though. Quickest way is the bridge, but that's definitely going to be guarded. I can feel it."

"If the bridge is the quickest way, then we should take it," said Chaine.

The others agreed with his assessment, so Scott decided to roll with it. He'd already asked them to do something ridiculous by taking the zip line. "For now, we've avoided a lot of problems. If we can get past that bridge we shouldn't have too many issues before we get to the princess."

Scott and Samantha went into action first. They cleared the area using fireballs and plasma beam shots so that the group could form up on the ground and move out.

Saelil started to say something, but stopped suddenly. "What an odd noise."

"Odd noise?" asked Scott.

"Yes, it reminds me of a bell ringing," said Saelil, before pointing to an area just down the road.

"A bell ring—" began Scott, only for his eyes to widen in shock as his ears finally registered the barely heard noise for what it was. "Dammit! Get ready."

"Ready for what?" asked Chaine.

Inside a small clothing boutique on the other side of the road, a rotting hand picked up a ringing telephone. The zombie moaned into the receiver and an evil laugh erupted outward from the phone. Just like the ancient television commercial, it was time to reach out and touch someone.